3 Things You Should Know About Small Business: July 20

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- What's happening in small business today?

1. ABC's Shark Tank is looking for young entrepreneurs. Young entrepreneurs have until the first week of August to get their submission in to be on ABC's popular series Shark Tank, according to Entrepreneur.com.

Through an initiative with the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA), Shark Tank is seeking applicants ages 11 to 19 to be featured on the show. Several YEA graduates have already been interviewed by the show's producers, Entrepreneur says.

"This growing segment of impressive young minds is carving out a successful niche in the marketplace and we want to speak to them," Shark Tank producer David Polanzak tells Entrepreneur.

2. Should you really do it all? Small business expert Rieva Lesonsky wonders if entrepreneurs are being penny-wise but pound-foolish when they try to do everything at their business by themselves. Based on survey findings from Hiscox, the majority of entrepreneurs handle most tasks in the business alone, Lesonsky says. What's more concerning is that even though business owners know that certain issues like legal, tax and accounting should be handled by professionals, just 26% actually use legal or accounting professionals.

Handling all the facets of your business by yourself could put your company at risk, Lesonsky says in a post on the Score Orange County's website.

"Don't let your passion for your business blind you to the reality that sometimes, you might need outside help. If you can't afford to hire a full-time employee to deal with issues like accounting, and you're not good at it yourself, at least consider getting some part-time help or meeting with your accountant once a quarter," she says.

3. Here are six top Twitter feeds that small business owners should follow. Twitter has yet to be proven as a must-have business tool, despite all the hype about the social media site. For small business owners, perhaps the best way to use the site is as a follower rather than a leader, says Elizabeth Blackwell, a contributor to TheStreet.

Top thought leaders and experts in business today are active on Twitter, which could inspire small business owners or offer suggestions on how to improve their businesses.

A few great Twitter feeds to follow include:

Bill Gross, founder and co-chief investment officer of Pimco

Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us and A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Bob Sutton, a management professor at Stanford and well-known expert on employee-employer relations

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a Harvard Business School professor and author who writes about strategy, innovation and management

Finallty, the Small Business Administration, which has an "impressively active" Twitter feed, filled with relevant information and resources for business owners

-- Written by Laurie Kulikowski in New York.

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